Merger of Journal Communications approved by feds

The FCC has approved the merger of JOURNAL COMMUNICATIONS, INC. and THE E.W. SCRIPPS CO. The grant was, as expected, conditioned upon spinning off stations in two markets and getting a waiver of the television ownership limits under the "failing station" exception. The merged company will split into two operations, publicly-held E.W. SCRIPPS CO. with the broadcast properties, and JOURNAL MEDIA GROUP INC., with the companies' newspaper holdings.

A spinoff in BOISE (where the company owns two of the "big 4" network stations, ABC affiliate KIVI-TV and FOX affiliate KNIN-TV) will be transferred to the JOURNAL/SCRIPPS DIVESTITURE TRUST, with DOUGLAS G. KIEL (KIEL MEDIA GROUP, LLC) as trustee. The "failing station" waiver is for MY NETWORK TV affiliate WACY-TV/GREEN BAY, where JOURNAL owns NBC affiliate WGBA-TV. And in WICHITA, where JOURNAL owns six radio stations, five on FM, and must spin off one FM, Classic Country KFTI (CLASSIC COUNTRY 92.3)/WICHITA, has been sold to ENVISION BROADCAST NETWORK, LLC.

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